Paris Olympics 2024: Boomers loss, Arisa Trew, track bronze medal and more among best bits of day 11
1. Teenage dream
What were you doing as a 14-year-old? Arisa Trew just won an Olympic gold medal.
The park skater scored a 93.18 in the epic run that landed her gold and even earned a shout-out from skating’s greatest of all time Tony Hawk.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.It was a strong recovery too, after Trew fell in her very first run of the day, pulling herself together to land the winning score in the third and final run.
“It’s really crazy, I’m just so excited, it’s just so many emotions at once,” she said.
Sandra Morgan was 94 days older than Trew when she won swimming gold in 1956.
2. You’re Jok-ing!
Australia led by 24 points, then coughed it up, got on Patty Mills’ back to send it to overtime, but ultimately lost to Serbia and NBA most valuable player Nikola Jokic in a pulsating basketball quarter-final.
The Boomers were humming in the first half, Josh Giddey and Mills’ lights-out shooting them steering them to an imposing lead, but Jokic engineered a comeback and regular time finished 82-82.
But Serbia was too good in overtime, overpowering our Aussies to win 95-90.
3. Monkey off the track
Bronze medals don’t come much more emotional than this.
Australia has finished fourth in the past five Olympic men’s team sprint events on the track. That streak is over — with a medal to show for it.
West Aussie Matthew Richardson, Leigh Hoffman and Matthew Glaetzer defeated France in a bronze medal race, with Glaetzer, dubbed the unluckiest man in cycling, getting a “monkey off the back” after a string of heartbreaking results.
4. Quite the sting
Australia’s giant-slaying water polo teams have become the most promising sport teams at these Games.
And the Stingers led from start to finish to handle Greece in their quarter-final on Wednesday morning to set up a semifinal with the United States.
Alice Williams scored five times and WA shot-stopper Genevieve Longman starred in the 9-6 victory.
5. Towering performance
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar are out to go one better than their silver medal in Tokyo, and their campaign is right on track.
The Aussie pair beat Switzerland 15-12 in a deciding third set to move through to a semifinal of their own.
Unforced errors slipped into the Australians’ game in a wobbly second set, but they steadied early in the third to round out another imposing performance under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
6. Cole, calm and collected
This was forecast as the Stade de France track’s greatest match races. Norwegian favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain’s Josh Kerr lived up to the hype, staring each other down until the final 100 metres of the last lap.
Then American Cole Hocker arrived on the scene. The US bolter had a dip down the inside on the final turn but was buffeted out and had to go again down the home straight.
He made his way between the pair and while Kerr went with him and finished with silver, Ingebrigtsen missed the medals completely having set the pace.
7. One Mel of a ride
One of Australia’s most storied Olympic careers has come to an end in the women’s 10m platform diving competition.
Five-time representative Melisa Wu finished 11th with a score of 278.30 in the final on Tuesday night. It brings down the curtain on her career at the Games.
But Australia’s future in the sport was on display, with 17-year-old Ellie Cole finishing seventh behind star Chinese pair Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi
8. Thomas the tank
In another track epic on Wednesday morning, American favourite Gabrielle Thomas powered to victory in the 200m, robbing 100m champion Julien Alfred of a world-beating double.
Thomas, who had the best time coming in, had to push past Alfred’s blistering start and effectively win the race on the turn.
She won the blue-riband race in a time of 21.83, with countrywoman Brittany Brown coming home to win bronze.
9. Lightning fast
On their way to Thursday morning’s final in the men’s team pursuit, Australia has set a blistering world record.
Australia’s team of Sam Wellsford, Conor Leahy, Olly Bleddyn and Kelland O’Brien posted a time of 3.40:730 to claim the record in their fourth heat against Italy.
It set up their race for gold with Great Britain.
10. Keep dreaming
Team USA’s basketball kings have cruised into a blockbuster semifinal with Jokic and Serbia, defeating Brazil 122-87.
Devin Booker led the US with 18 points, while Anthony Edwards put up 17. One of the highlights was a stunning inbound alley-oop from LeBron James that was jammed home by Jayson Tatum. That came in a three-minute period before half-time where the raging-hot favourites really got cooking.
